Heading Back to “Our First Home”

i cannot even believe it…we are headed back to Portland, Oregon today after 4 long months away!!! actually we are only in Portland about 18 hours because our FREE workshop my husband puts on (part ‘how to make it a great speech’ and part motivation and life changing-no big) is 2 hours south in Eugene, OR.

we moved to portland in june 2009, right after we graduated from colorado state so i could get my masters in social work. i have such a good husband (then fiance) that he was more than game to move across the country to a place we only visited once and knew no one. oh and had no source of income and he did about 83 different (and often crazy) odd jobs to make ends meet. it took a little while to adjust but once we did, it felt like our city. the place where we made it our home, just the two of us.

i am feeling oddly nervous about going back to this city. i miss it terribly and unsure of how i (or we) will feel once we are back there. we made the decision to move to houston a few months back so we could organize and make the tour we are on a reality (shout out to the in-laws for hanging on to our treasures while we are on the road). it was the right decision, but a tough one nonetheless. we miss our friends, we miss our community and we miss interacting with overly tattooed, funky people sipping delicious coffee.

our farewell was pretty abrupt. i was at the peak of putting on HOBY Oregon, a 3 day youth leadership seminar, then we had one day after that wrapped up to finalizing packing and cleaning the apartment because we had to be out the next day. it was a whirlwind and i don’t remember a lot of it. i just remember Ravery having to give me lots of hugs and taking lots of deep breaths as a i freaked out.

everyone at our wedding received rocks with their names on it and here were ours we picked out for one another in colorado. we were so tight on space when we moved…we decided to throw these stones in the willamette river so a part of us would always be there.

part of me wants to send my newly certified scuba diving husband down there and fish them out so i can hold on to them again.

the new wifestyle: even when you make the right decision, you can still experience mixed feelings (and a whole lot of them).

questions:1) are you living where you thought you’d end up?2) did you have assigned seating at your wedding? (we obviously did and i would recommend it to no one)
3) do you think Portland is really like the show ‘Portlandia?’ well…it is.

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10 Comments

1. Hell no not in a million years!!!!! actually I thought we’d end up in or around Portland! Oregon is my husband’s dream place to live! We would always say that if we were to pick up and move, oregone is where we wanted to be! Seems like we’d we’d fit in. But were here we are in the Bible Belt, being judged with my overly tattooed husband. Alabama definitely is a beautiful place! I wanted an adventure and I got one! Still adjusting to this southern life.

2. we didn’t have assigned seating. my sister in law recommended not to because it causes a huge headache. so glad we didn’t! Went to 5 weddings this summer and they were all assigned seating (I sat at the head table in 4 of them so had no choice either way really) but it just is a waste of time. People cancel last minute or decide they’re coming last minute and then you’left trying
to figure things out…3 days before the wedding!

3. never been to Portland or seen the show. Would love to visit some day!

haha i would never have even thought about Alabama-what an adventure indeed! i think i would probably be judged there too…although i don’t rock a sleeve tattoo so i bet he gets some looks! and you would LOVE portland (they LOVE tattoos)-it’s a way pretty and fun place…sitting here is making me miss living here.

you are also so smart janae to have listened to your SIL for not going with assigned seating…so smart!

1) I grew up in Windsor Ontario, (cough cough) across the river from Detroit. I went to Vancouver when I was 22 and knew British Columbia was where I wanted to be. I travelled all over Canada for the next 12 years and moved out here again 11 years ago. So glad that my daughter is a BC baby.
2) we did have assigned seating at our (first- yes, Lloyd and I married twice) wedding. It was VERY difficult trying to ifgure out who to put where. and THEN, at the last minute, Lloyd’s dad, sister and nephew showed up so I had to re-do the whole thing 2 days before. STRESS.
3) The Sunshine Coast is just like Portlandia.

that is awesome that you knew BC was right where you wanted to be paula-and glad you have a BC baby 🙂 yeaaaaah SO stressful but hopefully it all worked out with that crazy assigned seating-nightmare. i still need to visit the sunshine coast and then i’ll make my conclusion-ha 🙂 sounds beautiful there!

Those rocks are such a lovely idea. No wonder your tempted to try recover them! I am always marveling at how life takes us places we never thought we’d end up. My husband for example is from the middle east. Growing up there, there’s no way he thought he’d ever move to Australia and marry a woman who he spoke English to – it was just too foreign, but here we are.

We did have assigned seating, though there so many things we’d do differently if could go back and do it all over again 🙂 Hindsight is always so clear!

thanks corrine-i so want those rocks back now! very true statement about how life takes us places we never thought of! wow-crazy how the world works and that you and your husband met that way but aren’t we glad it usually works the way it does 🙂 hindsight=crystal clear-ha!

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